I stifled my smile and walked out. At the door I turned back to him. “Do we need to have another talk about everything or do you remember what I told you?”
“You’d think that getting the ‘birds and bees’ talk from a doctor would be less awkward.” He eyed the box and then back at me. “I never want to repeat that conversation. Ever.”
I smiled and walked out. But I couldn’t miss the slide of the cupboard as he opened it. Yeah, we were in for a world of trouble if we weren’t careful.
“Daddy.” Landon called from his high chair, frown firmly in place. “I don’t want bocolli.”
“Broccoli is good for you. It will make you big and strong. Like me.”
“And Unca Mase.”
I rolled my eyes and exhaled. “Yes, and Uncle Mason.”
My recovery had taken longer than I would’ve liked and I could only get to the gym a few months after I had been shot. Mason was the one to help with my training. My son had watched his uncle spar with me a few times. My best friend had no problem besting me in front of my kid.
Not that I minded. Landon and Vicky were happy and healthy and ours.
While Landon was a lot more comfortable speaking to all of us, he still wasn’t much of a talker. He was coming out of the toddler tantrum phase but more and more he would throw the silent treatment when something upset him. I was not a fan of that.
His sister, however, had started walking and talking. The walking part she had mastered. Most of the time. The talking? Well, Vicky had a lot to say, not much of it was coherent. She was able to pronounce cookie and grandma.
I was convinced that Hope Salinger was my little girl’s favorite person. My mother-in-law had more than a dozengrandchildren once you included the honorary ones who became family over the years. She adored each one of them. She still did dance videos with Skylar and continued to teach Dom and Aidan how to both cook and fix a tire.
The most important part of the last year was the day I spent at the court. Let’s just say the wheels of justice were not speedy. Bex and I decided we would have a courthouse wedding on the same day as the adoption hearing. Romantic in concept, but fuck, it required a lot of patience. We were only able to officially adopt the children a few weeks ago, even though they’d felt like ours since the day they walked into our lives. And Bex had only been my wife for the same amount of time. And I had known that was something I wanted since before I hit puberty.
She came into the kitchen holding and swaying a crying and red-faced Vicky. “She tried to hit Landon and nearly fell out of the chair. Got more of a fright than anything else but her dinner went everywhere.” She gestured in the direction of the bathroom. “How’d that go.”
“You really want to know?”
“Not really.” She walked over to the couch and gave Vicky a bottle, allowing the little girl to hold it herself. “But we know better than anyone that we do not have the luxury of being ignorant when it comes to these things.”
I let out a sigh. “I showed him where they were. I’m sure he’ll use them.”
Bex shuddered at my words. “Damn, I didn’t need to know that part. He is supposed to be my sweet little boy.”
“Are we talking about the same kid?” I frowned at her. “The one with a permanent scowl, like he is generally pissed off with the world. Thatsweetboy?”
The security app on my phone chimed alerting me that someone was on the property. I checked the camera to see Nickwalking toward the front door. I opened just as he was about to knock.
“Evening Evans Family.”
“Unca Nick. You want bocolli?”
I sighed and glared at the three-year-old. He’d be four in a few weeks and Bex had a party planned. That was if he didn’t drive us to drink before then. “Landon. Eat your vegetables. Now.”
My son looked at his plate and popped another piece in his mouth and pulled a face. Yep, I would be getting silent treatment until bedtime.
Nick pulled a face like he was trying not to laugh. “Wow. You’ve got that Dad-voice down, don’t you.”
“If you had to have the kind of uncomfortable conversation that I just had, you’d see why it is necessary.”
“Tiffany Snow?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve seen her at little league, her little sister plays with Mattie and Cooper. Only them and their older brother. I never see those parents.”
I wasn’t sure those parents were around all that often. They were never at parent-teacher nights and the one-time Tiffany was in the ER, her older brother was with her and her parents were nowhere to be seen.
